Writing and Stitching in the digital era ...

Good morning

Days, hours, where do they fly to? So, a small taste below of happenings in yet another blog gap.

In my stitching life I'm beginning to see the shape of my project about walking the London Loop with a group of friends. I created a separate notebook using the Paper App on my iPad to mirror possible pages in a fabric book about the walk. I'm adding photos taken on the walk with those of the work in progress (there is a lot of that) that the photos have inspired. My first Paper app notebook on this project has lots more detail about the  methods ... memory joggers really ... and  I needed a second notebook with a shape that might be that of the finished piece.

The app is very useful, and its easy to use -   do have a look at it, more details here https://www.fiftythree.com/paper.

the beginning of a railway arch ... 

In my writing life I've been editing my novel after a chat, and with the so very useful notes of, wonderful Jane - the first of my beta readers. To give me hints and encouragement in while I'm doing this I joined an short online course about the writing life. It has audio snippets that are good for just before sleep and when I wake up listening and thoughtful questions at the end of each brief 'lesson' .

It was a good decision and here's the website of the writer who put the short course together and has lots more to support fledgling writers   https://janfortune.com.

I feel I'm close to sending my first book out into the big wide world so have been researching how to do this via an agent and the possibility of self publishing.  This Saturday I managed to listen on-line to some of the presentations at a Self Publishing Advice Conference. More details at http://selfpublishingadviceconference.com. There's lots of good stuff on their website if you're thinking of self publishing.

And so good to  rejoin my Saturday morning yoga class at Yoki Studio http://yokistudio.blogspot.com
...    and to get out in the garden where this small creature had found its winter home

It it still Summer or has Autumn arrived ...

... its that time of the year. That back to school time, holidays over and when you need to ask at the start of each day, and sometimes at other times,  which season is it today.

So a few photos from around the garden on that very theme, well, not the back to school one because I'm not back to the Institches School until the end of the month. But the rest are on song, so to speak.

   All ready for the new wood,


















Is this enough kindling?

And just in case it gets cold anytime soon ....












Meanwhile in the growing garden  - with credit to Paul for planting, sowing, watching for bugs and all that watering ,,,

Oh, but this one was my work ...

Meanwhile, inside I'm still stitching and I'm saying this very quietly  

I am also writing. Presently simply called Book 2 I've got a small routine going  and four days into it so far so good. Wouldn't it be wonderful if a very nice agent now wanted to represent me and sell my first one (it is finished) to a publisher?

In between the stitches and the words I keep looking at what can only be described as some odd bits of rusted and dyed fabric up on my design wall. Surely an idea of what to do with them will come to be soon. 

  and back to the garden, and the question of the season. The leaves are turning but it is still warm enough to sleep without the duvet. Is there a word for between one season and the other. Perhaps right now we are in sumertumn?  

Supper's ready, and yes, it includes one of those lovely lettuce and lots of tomatoes. 

Review of The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

Billed as a ‘best seller’ and ‘book of the year’ this is a long read with the appearance of a typical small town crime novel. And not only has the crime (the disappearance of a young girl) remained unsolved for thirty plus years but the engaging but slightly annoying protagonist is writing about said crime. 

In this way the book extends into the territory of why write, what it is to write and further into the murky water’s of writing about the truth, or people’s versions of the truth,  and of who has the right to document and make public the truths of other people. This leads the story into big city/publishing politics and the selling value of public interest, or is it prurience, in the hidden lives of the famous and not so famous. 

Dicker, and his translator (from French), Sam Taylor, do a good job of guiding the reader through the complexities of the story as it swings back and forth through thirty three years. The characters are well established, and the plot has enough twists and turns to keep a reader’s interest. I found the background detail on Harry and Marcus rather tedious and the writing in these sections a bit banal. Otherwise the prose is strong and authentic. 

This is a book is about love, snobbery, atonement, tenacity, and secrets and how these  all work to shape the very different lives of the cast of characters. It is an ambitious book that took me some time to get into but the story is intriguing and the overarching theme of fiction-making with truth is thought provoking. That makes it, for me, a good read.

More generally, this is another in the short list of translated novels I've read recently. All translated to English (obviously!!!) this book from French, others from Icelandic and Spanish. Where next I ask myself?   

And while on the subject of lists Joel Dicker's (JD) book is set in a small America town, the setting for many novels by Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout. Add to that the number of similar small towns that Lee Child writes of in his Jack Reacher novels ... quite a list of authors, well, four anyway. What is it about those places that two American authors (AT and ES), one (LC) British born but living in the USA), and one (JD) Swiss and living in Geneva, and I'm sure there are more, what is it that takes their writing to those similar settings?  It is as if the setting is another character for these writers. As if the psycho-geography of the streets, commercial sectors and environs of the town have agency in their stories.

For me, there is a message here. Several in fact. One of which is how important it is to read. To read widely, with thought and to learn from others ...  thank you  LC, JD, ES and AT and others .... 

I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Other questions also come to mind. Would similar settings in other countries be the same? Is there something unique about small US towns? I think I get the small town bit but the American angle is interesting. Your thoughts please. Leave a comment ... send me the name of book set in a small UK town where the settings has a strong role ... please!! 

It is raining here, gently watering the plants and freshening up the air. And we are drying figs. Nuff said. Back soon. 

A Cat, a Man and Two Women ... a Review

Junichero Tanizaki  translated by Paul McCarthy

A beautifully produced small book with a  title that says it all ... except that really there were three women. Shozo’s mother played an important role, typically with behind the scenes mother-in-law management for her own ends. Lots of manipulation in this book ... hidden motives, and the cat, Lily, came in very useful as the tool for all this to happen. So an unusual take on a very usual story of jealousy, betrayal, weakness, love and some silliness. The different cultural setting added interest ... would this happen in an European family? 
Gentle and elegant prose style, an ending that said nothing about the future of the characters and some insights into how obsessive people can be about a cat. 

An enjoyable read and the third translated novel I've read in the last few weeks. Thinking of this reminds me that I should read translations more regularly. They have more to offer then simply the story. The manner of the translation is key ... here it was good, and are a way to more understanding of other cultures. 

As i'm now at home in France it feels timely to add to my reading list a novel translated from that language. I know very little about contemporary French writers and what they are writing. Suggestions for a good read please. 

A taste of my between-books writing

... and first of all, you're right, I need to say something about what this blog post title means. Nothing much really, it is just that I have finished, for the time being, my edits of my first novel, the second is in my head or handwritten along the lines of my morning pages journal,  I'm keeping my writing muscles sharp with other writing at the moment. You might call them fragments, very small essays, essentially, they are my thinking on the page ...


I'm a morning person, I know this, my habits show this and my genes confirm it.

I love the first-thing-in-the-morning air. There is something about its regularity and difference each day. The way it predicts, or tries to, or I think it can,  say something about what might happen for the rest of the day.

I love the feel of that air on my arms, my feet, my neck, being able to sense how it is moving or not moving, the weight of it, the colour of it. The aura it creates, each and every day.

I love the way it is there each morning when I wake up, spreading itself onwards, holding sounds, echoing those sounds, saying something about the day with the sounds.

It seems important to notice what the air at that time is doing, to pay attention to its words. Early morning air has the feel of wanting to be noticed. It is not shy but it doesn't seek attention. I've never seen first-thing-in-the-morning air stand up and shout, or say look at me.

It is an air that invites thoughtfulness. More than that, it deserves thoughtfulness. For a moment, or maybe for a few moments, it deserves recognition of its importance to the day ahead.

What if, each morning, the first time we meet the air outside of where we are with the outside of who we are, what if we stopped? Some people might call that taking moment to be mindful, to mediate, to pray. I'd rather not label it. For me it is a moment to stop, to feel, to consider, not to be thinking.

Just think though how many people would be doing that at the same time each day. How many of those moments would happen throughout the twenty four hours of each day. How much global slowing would happen at that moment.

Just think of what that slowing could add. All thanks  to the first-thing-in-the-morning air.

I might be back tomorrow with post about framing and hanging my small stitched pieces. Slowly, I'm learning how to do this. Or, it might the day after.

Before you go, I'd like to know what the first-thing-in-the-morning air was like where you are today. Please leave a comment.

Summer 2017 books & review of The Memory Stones

I've just finished reading The Memory Stones by Caroline Brothers, see https://www.amazon.co.uk/Memory-Stones-Caroline-Brothers/dp/1408844494/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1502122304&sr=1-1&keywords=the+memory+stones



Really enjoyed this novel. Clearly based on sound research but written very allowing the evidence stayed in the background while the plot, characters and powerful emotions took centre stage. The web link above gives the outline of the story. For me the book's strength is in the way the story embraces all those affected by Military Rule and stretches this effectively into future generations.  In places the scenery was in danger of taking over but these passages helped to set the pace of what happened to match that of the characters experience. A very good read. 4.5 stars.

Finishing one book set me thinking about all the books around me this summer ... here's a few pics.

 I went to a workshop run by Robert Vas Dias last year ... good to have time to read his Still Life collection.

I'm learning a lot from this book but need more practice at image transfer with Gel medium 

I heard this author interviewed on BBC World service  .. looking forward to starting this tonight 

Another purchase after an author interview but I'm struggling with this even though its set in New Zealand and I recognise much of the geography 

A bit tedious! I'm trying to read two pages a day to improve my French!!!

My breakfast book with lots of helpful examples of how using a sketchbook leads to original textile work 

And if I'm to progress my knitting I'll need to find something to follow Middlemarch on Audible ... another classic comes to mind. The convenience of bluetooth headphones and George Eliot's wonderful writing had me hooked. I struggled to read the book in print but it was a great listen. I'm now watching the BBC series. I'll let you know what my next choice is. 

Book review: The Essex Serpent

Just finished this very good book. Here's the long review https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/16/the-essex-serpent-sarah-perry-review-novel

and my short version is - beautiful prose, characters that were strangly and wonderfully out of character and a book that carried the research that shaped it lightly. Well worth the time it takes to read it.

A beautiful day for walking

... more of the London Loop. This time from Malden, through Kingston to Bushy park https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/bushy-park.

Springy grass, muddy paths, pavements, local wildlife and the splendour of a reflected tree ...

From this to this and a great book.

Briefly and in pictures  ... a few days of dyeing fabric, rinsing, washing, and this morning the best ironing task ever to reveal the results.

First the soaking and seeping

and after the bucket and machine washing hanging out to dry ...

and finally, discovering the patterns and shapes  - I found faces, flowers, a staircase and lots of forest ... 

And in case you missed my tweet about this wonderful book I recommend it as very good read. Powerful, insightful, I was captured by its relevance to the present, authenticity and straightforward style. I just kept wondering how I had missed it all these years of reading ... thanks to my book group I've now had that pleasure. One to read again. 

Review: The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt

This is a very unusual novel ... once or twice I questioned whether I was actually reading a work of fiction as the book is, at times, a woman's diary, her letters written in another name, the testimony of (amongst others) her children, friends, and, importantly, the views of her partners in the hoax she pulls on the art world.

The style grew on me, it hardly mattered that the key matter in the book  - the hoax - was apparent from the start ... this is book about a woman troubled by mysogny, in particular, in the art world, but you can translate the context to many other settings!

Harry is also troubled by much more because, of course, she is a human being with all the strengths and frailties, and her actions are shaped by 'life'. This makes for a readable story in which Harry takes centre stage and kept me interest mainly because Hustvedt writes her key character's part with a raw honesty.

That said, this book is hard work but like most work of that sort, it's worth the effort.

Review: Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates

Very short book: borrowed, well known topic, mix of US and sexual politics, and JCO's perceptive prose adds up to a readable story. The ebb and  flow of time creates interest and tension, maybe some doubt about the end, but in the end, it ends as one knows it must - badly.

Review The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright

In this book Enright takes us firmly into the heart (and possibly the soul?) of a love affair, into the depths of the marriages and families of the two lovers, and into the economic fervour of the setting. She writes with wit, passion and an urgency that makes this book a page-turner for about 2/3rds of its 230 pages.

The narrator is centre stage in the story, her emotions, highs, lows, and their compelling complexity are in charge … we read it all from her perspective, and mostly she feels reliable. The discovery by ‘others’ of the affair turns the story, not unexpectedly, but not as much as one might think.

Thereafter I found the change of pace rather slow, it was almost as if this turned into a different book, as if we were at the beginning of something else rather than sliding towards an ending.

That said, I read on, enjoying the way Enright provides solutions to the key matter of the book, to the significance of the child who saw them kissing. This is a good read, it captures turmoil and tenderness, sexual passions and family powers in a compelling way.   

Review: Purge by Sofi Oksanen

This is the first of Sofi Oksanen's books that I've read... and I have to thank two lovely Finnish women and the Oxfam shop at the the Hay Festival for the introduction. There's more about the author here http://www.sofioksanen.com.

Purge is well crafted with the several parallel timelines clearly signposted and an interesting use of a very different writing style to bring the story to its close. Oksanen's story is of family and politics in Estonia/Russia/Finland in the 1940's and 1990's, with human trafficking, sibling rivalry and the power of secrets at its heart.

Its an absorbing and constantly developing story, the prose is powerful and authentic ... a very good read. I shall be looking for more of Oksanen's novels in the future.

Review: Home by Toni Morrison

Morrison’s 2013 book, Home, is short – maybe a novella? What is a novella? Whatever, this is another of Morrison’s engaging stories. It swings from the raw to the heartening, moves between voices and juxtaposes elements of the new and of the familiar with consummate ease. Such is her craft, her light touch that offers depth, her insight that exposes but rarely judges.

Frank and Cee, brother and sister, and the people they collide with in their young and often innocent lives, are so very real in Morrison’s hands. She weaves the story of their childhood, of their leaving and returning to their community into the contemporary nature of a time that fails them and many others.

Although short, this is a complete book, and, as always, with Morrison, one in which every word counts, where there is no waste. Such a talent.

Hay Festival 2014 - reflections

Being away from home and being at home are equal sides of a 'coin' for me - each wonderful in their own way. It feels good this morning to be in my at home routine - writing and posting my small stone, already dressed for this morning's yoga class with Drew, tipping overnight rain water from flower pots that don't drain very well, and using up some store cupboard food because the fridge is bare!!  This is no bad thing as much in my larder is very near (often past) its sell by date.

But I'm back from an equally wonderful week at my sister's cottage in Wales and The Hay Festival. As usual, the events I planned to go to were very good and those spur of the moment/better to be in a tent than out in the cold events - well, they were all great as well.

So good to hear Carol Ann Duffy reading poems from The Worlds Wife & her other collections to a packed audience in the largest tent and later to listen to the painter Shani Rhys James, with some of the poets, talking about her Florilingua project. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/shani-rhys-james-11155

Toni Morrison was wonderful, talking both to Peter Florence about Beloved and then more generally about literary and global matters to Razia Iqbal -both of them were great interviewers, and Morrison shared many wise words with us all.  I'm now reading her latest, Home  ... it has her wonderful painterly prose.  I'll say more when I've finished it.

Hay is such a good place to discover new writers. So now I have a book by Finnish author Sofi Oksanen -this after a chatty lunch with two Finnish women who are Hay regulars - and I've definitely put the books of Siri Hustvedt on my to read list. At Hay she talked about her new book, The Blazing World and much else. She is a clear deep thinker, un-afraid to respond spontaneously to hard questions in front of a packed audience.

So well done Hay people ... a very good festival, unsullied by the rain and mud.  One plea for next year, please try to arrange better connections to the internet, its no fun tweeting if they go nowhere, and some more seats for those of us who stay all day and need to rest a while with our books would be great ... thank you.

Review:The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

Catton's novel is large in many dimensions and directions. It’s long, it has a large cast, its prose has depth and complexity and the plot takes the reader on a lengthy, not altogether straightforward, journey.  Add to this the Victorian mystery style that begins in one way, then deviates, and the layers of astrology that slip in between each section and you have a challenging and rewarding read.

Catton writes with some recognition that her reader will need tools of recapitulation, ably provided by Walter Moody. She crafts and maintains a admirable sense of the time and setting she’s chosen for the story -– the gold rush years in a young country full of people who have left some other place in their search for somewhere where they might find the life they want.

  

I counted myself fortunate that I recognised the geography having recently sent some time on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island – at least one aspect of the book was familiar!

I found myself looking forward to the next time I could open my Kindle and read more of this book.  I’m still wondering about the unresolved matters  -more than one and one central to the story. I’m thinking Catton might be writing the sequel right now. If so I’m looking forward to reading it and I’d read this book again.

NB this book is on the Man Booker short list see http://www.themanbookerprize.com/books/luminaries